Syrian troops capture east Aleppo neighbourhood from rebels
BEIRUT — A Syrian official blasted Turkey Saturday saying it is to blame for the death of its soldiers because it sent them to Syria, as the Syrian army said troops have captured a neighbourhood in the northern city of Aleppo days after the government resumed its offensive on the besieged rebel-held eastern part of the city.
Syria’s deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad’s comments were the first by a Syrian official since Thursday when three Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Syria in what the Turkish military said was a pre-dawn Syrian airstrike. The account was disputed by Syrian activists who said the soldiers were killed by a suicide attack by the Islamic State group the day before.
Since then two more soldiers have been killed over the past two days in fighting near the town of al-Bab, an IS stronghold.
“Turkish policies are responsible for the tension in Turkish-Syrian relations,” Mekdad told the Lebanon-based Pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV. He added that Turkey took part in sending foreign fighters into Syria and armed them “in order to destroy Syria and Syrians.”